During the Cold War, Soviet communists referred to American liberals as \u201cuseful idiots,\u201d\u00a0armchair revolutionaries\u00a0who spouted proletarian slogans at cocktail parties. <\/p>\n
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Zohran Mamdani and his\u00a0newly appointed cadre engage in chest-pounding about their intentions to \u201cseize the means of production\u201d while living off their parents or working friends in high society. AP<\/p>\n
Today, they are often young people who joined communist coffee klatches in college under the tutelage of academia\u2019s \u201cradical chic.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Like Zohran Mamdani and his\u00a0newly appointed cadre<\/a>, they engage in chest-pounding about their intentions<\/a> to \u201cseize the means of production\u201d while living off their parents or working friends in high society.<\/p>\n They often reveal little actual historical or philosophical knowledge, which is an advantage if you are going to call for the replication of one of the least successful political theories in history. <\/p>\n Venezuela is a prime example.<\/p>\n At one time, American radicals pointed to Venezuela as the new workers\u2019 paradise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a>\u00a0claimed\u00a0that the \u201cAmerican dream is more apt to be realized\u201d in Venezuela than in the United States.<\/p>\n As recently as 2019, Chicago Teachers Union members went to Venezuela to\u00a0herald life under socialism\u00a0and how they did not see \u201ca single homeless person.\u201d <\/p>\n They also did not see any dissent or free speech, which helped conceal a collapsing economy.<\/p>\n In short order, socialists in Venezuela turned one of the most affluent nations on earth into an economic basket case. <\/p>\n After seizing control of the once-burgeoning oil\u00a0industry, the socialists reduced production to a trickle.\u00a0<\/p>\n The people suffered starvation; some were\u00a0forced to eat their pets.<\/p>\n Venezuelan socialism was only preserved through the suppression of elections and a large force of Cuban military and\u00a0security\u00a0personnel.<\/p>\n With Venezuela now mostly out of fashion, American socialists are citing other models for the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mamdani is now heralding South Africa as a model, a country where his family owns a large estate and a guarded manor. <\/p>\n In his pledge to govern \u201cexpansively and audaciously,\u201d Mamdani told New Yorkers<\/a> to \u201clook to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter.\u201d <\/p>\n The suggestion is that conditions in the United States are akin to apartheid in South Africa, and similar measures to redistribute property might be necessary in this country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, South Africa\u2019s economy is in tatters, while many are alleging a loss of\u00a0due process in the confiscation of land<\/a>\u00a0from white citizens.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The country has\u00a0struggled with economic conditions\u00a0for years under measures that range from the repressive to the moronic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other American socialists are citing another socialist \u201csuccess\u201d story: Cuba.<\/p>\n Interviewer Brandi Kruse asked Democratic Socialist Shaun Scott this week to\u00a0\u201cgive me one example of socialism working well somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n The state representative from Seattle immediately cited Cuba as \u201ca good example of socialism working well.\u201d <\/p>\n He noted improvement in literacy rates and public health \u2014 while ignoring that Cuba\u2019s economy has been reduced to little above subsistence for many citizens, and the regime continues its blood-soaked repression<\/a> of its own people.<\/p>\n Indeed, Cuba relied on Venezuela to keep its lights on and, in return, supplied troops to repress<\/a> the Venezuelan people. <\/p>\n Nevertheless, Scott insists that Cuba is \u201cone example that I can think of that would resonate with pretty much anybody in our state who cares about education or health care.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cWould you disagree with that?\u201d<\/p>\n Well, yeah, I would. <\/p>\n More importantly, so would millions who fled that nation in search of freedom. Try asking that question on the streets of Miami.<\/p>\n In\u00a0my forthcoming book, I discuss this shift toward socialism among a new generation of young people with no experience or memory of the collapse of such systems in the 20th century. <\/p>\n They have been fed a reassuring line that their failure to get jobs is not due to their studying \u201ccommunity advocacy and social policy\u201d but inherent failures in capitalism.<\/p>\n Of course,\u00a0repeating communist dogma and\u00a0a degree in Africana studies from Bowdoin College can still get you elected as mayor of New York City. <\/p>\n However, for many, the lack of employment prospects seems to reaffirm what radical faculty told them about the conspiracy of evil capitalists ranging from oligarchs to oil companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n They are much like Cea Weaver, the new director of the Office to Protect Tenants, who holds degrees from the ultraleft universities<\/a> of Bryn Mawr College and New York University, where she studied urban planning. <\/p>\n